With funding and support from the National Science Foundation (NSF),
Gemini has succeeded in blazing a new Internet pathway which will
provide its globally separated twin telescopes with a reliable data
transfer connection able to handle the enormous amounts of scientific
information created by Gemini's sophisticated instrumentation.

This
innovative link was further made possible with the support and
technical assistance of Internet2, a university led networking research
and development consortium; and AMPATH, a high-performance Internet
"gateway" to South American research and educational networks led by
Florida International University (FIU) in Miami.

"Gemini
South is the first U.S. managed research program in South America to
access the Internet2 network infrastructure," said Gemini Director of
Operations Dr. James Kennedy, who led the Gemini initiative for
establishing the new link.

"Now all we are limited by is the speed of light."

Kennedy's
comments were made at the August 13, 2002 inauguration of the new link
between Gemini's twin, 8-meter telescopes located on Mauna Kea,
Hawai'i, and on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes.

Utilizing
the latest net-based, audio-visual conferencing technology, the event
itself was an apt demonstration of the enormous potential of the new
connection - not only for science, but also for cultural and
educational opportunities around the world.

Styled as
a "virtual inauguration", the event electronically brought together
several key individuals located at the Gemini facilities in both
Hawai'i and Chile, with the leading NSF participants and
representatives of Internet2 in Washington D.C., and Florida
International University in Miami.

Exemplifying the
new link's potential not only for astronomy, but also for the community
at large, Gemini Observatory Director Dr. Matt Mountain announced a new
teacher exchange program between Hawai'i and Chile. The program is
geared to allow educators from Chile and Hawai'i to share science and
their respective cultural heritages using the new Gemini technology in
an Internet Classroom that will connect the two communities. (See
related press release, "Teacher Exchange", at: http://www.gemini.edu/project/announcements/press/2002-12.html.)

Speaking
at the event from his Washington, D.C., office, Dr. Wayne Van Citters,
Director of the National Science Foundation's Astronomy Division, said,
"Gemini has laid the foundation for a new way of doing astronomy that
will allow us to see farther, fainter and sharper than ever before.
This exemplifies what can be achieved through international scientific
cooperation."

Gemini Observatory is a partnership of
seven countries - the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

"With this
successfully completed final Internet phase, Gemini Observatory now
becomes a valuable global resource for the worldwide scientific
community," said Dr. Thomas Greene, Senior Program Director with the
Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research (ANIR) Division of the
National Science Foundation. Greene was instrumental in the NSF
coordination of the various scientific and governmental agencies.

Thanks
to this new link, Gemini is now able to move forward towards its "cyber
observatory" goal at a cost of approximately one-tenth the expense of
what would have been required to establish a similar high-quality
connection through commercial channels.

"It would
have been economically impractical to transmit the amount of data
required by modern astronomical research on the commodity Internet,"
Kennedy said.

Under development for almost five years, the creation of this pathway between the two telescopes was not a simple undertaking.

While
networks to support such science already existed within the U.S. and
several other nations, connecting these networks across international
boundaries has taken longer to develop.

"Getting
high-performance networking between countries has been a challenge,"
said Heather Boyles, Director of International Relations for Internet2,
a consortium of more than 200 U.S. universities, companies and research
organizations. Internet2 supports the U.S. portion of the Gemini
Connection via its high-speed, limited access science "backbone"
network known as Abilene.

Gemini North in Hawai'i has
been linked to Abilene for the past two years. However, finding a
suitable high-speed, high-capacity access point to South America and
thus, to Gemini South, was a critical goal in completing the link. The
innovative solution for Gemini was FIU's AMPATH, a new high-capacity
"portal" to South America.

"FIU's role in the Gemini
project is a source of great pride," said FIU President Modesto A.
Maidique. "This is the kind of partnership that the university of the
future should be involved in: one that promotes knowledge across
boundaries."

Because of its strategic significance in
scientific and educational networking, AMPATH has also received
extensive support from the NSF.

"Until recently,
high-capacity fiber optic networks between North and South America did
not exist. But AMPATH, working with Gemini, Internet2, and major
research networks in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, was able to take
advantage of newly built infrastructure to establish connections
between countries," said Ms. Boyles of Internet2.

AMPATH
(short for AmericasPATH) was established in 2000 by FIU as an
international Internet exchange point for research and education
networks in South and Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico, the
U.S. and the world.

"One of the big problems in
scientific research throughout Latin America has always been
high-quality access to the big research networks in the United States,"
said Julio Ibarra, Director of AMPATH and Advanced Research Networking
at FIU.

"There was a real need to somehow find a way
to link all these scientists in both North and South America together.
This was the driving force behind AMPATH. We are happy that Gemini has
demonstrated this so successfully, and in a very concrete way."

Kennedy
emphasized this international aspect of the completion of the new
Internet link by pointing out another very important goal envisioned in
the cyber observatory concept.

"This new link is just
the first step in providing us with the capability to allow astronomers
from around the world to participate in real-time observations without
ever leaving their offices."

This is achieved through
advanced Internet audio-visual technology which will allow an
astronomer in a distant location to be "tele-present" in real time
within the observatory control room as his or her observing program is
being executed on the telescopes.

As defined by the
Gemini architects of the concept, a cyber observatory is the seamless
integration of astronomy's latest computer-based imaging technology
with the cognitive utilization of high-speed networking infrastructure.

Although
the cyber observatory approach is a new concept, astronomy has a long
tradition of successful cooperation between international observatories.

"For
the past 27 years, the NSF-supported Blanco and Mayall 4-meter
telescopes have worked together to provide complete sky coverage for
astronomers," said Dr. Malcolm G. Smith, Director of Cerro Tololo
Inter-American Observatory (CTIO).

CTIO is a part of
the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and has provided
U.S. astronomers access to the southern sky for four decades. Gemini
and NOAO are both managed for the NSF by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA).

A
big plus for CTIO, is that because of this relationship, all telescopes
operating under the CTIO umbrella will benefit from the new Gemini
Internet link by being able to share this high-information
"science-net". Dr. Smith emphasized that this sharing will allow users
of the telescopes operated by CTIO to exploit similar Internet
potentials such as Gemini's Remote Viewing Project and the
observatory's new Teacher Exchange Program (See related press release).

"Now,"
said Dr. Smith, who also serves as AURA's representative in Chile,
"Gemini will take this concept a step further with its twin 8-meter
telescopes, fully integrated and connected by the modern technology of
the Internet."

As Gemini Observatory Director Dr.
Mountain so aptly characterized it, "Welcome to the dawning era of
point and click astronomy."

The Gemini Observatory is an international collaboration with two identical 8-meter telescopes. The Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope is located on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i (Gemini North) and the other telescope on Cerro Pachón in central Chile (Gemini South); together the twin telescopes provide full coverage over both hemispheres of the sky. The telescopes incorporate technologies that allow large, relatively thin mirrors, under active control, to collect and focus both visible and infrared radiation from space.

The Gemini Observatory provides the astronomical communities in six partner countries with state-of-the-art astronomical facilities that allocate observing time in proportion to each country's contribution. In addition to financial support, each country also contributes significant scientific and technical resources. The national research agencies that form the Gemini partnership include: the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Canadian National Research Council (NRC), the Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Cientifica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Argentinean Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva, and the Brazilian Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação. The observatory is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the NSF. The NSF also serves as the executive agency for the international partnership.